


BMBLB Week Prompts

by Xzeihoranth



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2019-01-09 09:52:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12273987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xzeihoranth/pseuds/Xzeihoranth
Summary: Stuff I wrote for the BMBLB Week over on Tumblr. In order: Yin Yang, Garden, Recovery, Beeunion. (And Sun/Moon for the 2018 one.)I'm bad at this.





	1. Yin Yang

**Author's Note:**

> None of the stories are related to each other in-narrative, just in terms of content.

The door opened.

Blake didn't look up. She recognized the footsteps. And, more importantly, she was just getting to her favorite part of the book.

The bunkbed shook a little as the occupant of the higher bunk hopped up. Then, a flash of yellow out of the corner of her eye.

Blake knew what Yang was doing. She was hanging upside down off her bunk, waiting for Blake to acknowledge her.

Much as she enjoyed Yang's company however, the book took priority. For now at least.

Until Yang said her name. "Blake!"

Blake turned a page, trying her best to ignore the foolish butterflies in her stomach. She told herself time and time again they were leftovers from the last of her time with the White Fang; whenever her name was uttered, he would have told her she was doing something wrong...

The butterflies were worsening.

"Bla-ake."

Blake sighed, and turned another page.

"Don't make me pull a Nora."

"What's a Nora?" Blake asked without looking up.

Yang giggled. Blake loved it when she did that, and hated how she loved it. Yang reached out and touched a finger gently to the tip of Blake's nose. "'Boop.'"

Blake refused to dignify this with a remark of any sort. Which included batting Yang's hand out of the way, no matter how gently.

She _was_ her partner after all.

"'Boop.'" Yang said again. She pressed her finger to Blake's nose again.

"What is it Yang?" Blake said at last.

"You should come outside and play in the snow with us." Yang said immediately.

Blake lowered her book. "Why?"

"It's fun!" Yang said. She fell off her bunk with the smallest of 'ow's and just laid there. "Ruby said it was a team-building exercise. She and Weiss are building the biggest bestest snow-fort on campus."

"That's quite the accomplishment." Blake said.

"Right?!" Yang said. "Also, don't go spreading this around, but we're declaring war on JNPR after it's finished."

"That hardly seems fair. I doubt JNPR's got a castle of their own."

"You'd be surprised." Yang contented herself with saying.

Blake waited for Yang to say something else. When she didn't, Blake lifted her book back to eye level.

"So? You comin'?"

"I...don't think so." Blake said. She frowned, surprised at how much regret she was feeling over four simple words.

"Why not?" Yang said, thankfully not raising her head to pout. Blake could never resist those big purple eyes flooding with crocodile tears.

"I don't like the cold."

"Ohh." Yang made a quick pantomime of a bow on top of her head. "Is it because of-"

Blake sighed. "No Yang." Though she didn't see Yang's pantomime, she knew what Yang had meant. She set her book down once more. "I just... I never learned how to deal with it. I grew up in Menagerie. It's not Vacuo, but it's a lot warmer than it is here. It doesn't snow there. Ever."

"Huh." Yang said. "I think that's the first thing you've said about where you grew up."

"...don't get used to it." Despite the briskness of her tone, Blake couldn't bring herself to go back to the book just yet.

She was surprised at how comfortable the silence felt. Yang propped her head on her arms and looked calmly up at the ceiling. The smallest of smiles drifted across Blake's face as she rolled over and watched her partner.

"Look," Yang said finally, in what Blake suddenly thought of as her more person-to-person voice. "Don't feel like you have to, but... It'd be a new experience, right? Isn't that what growing up is all about?"

"I thought it was about 'loss of innocence', and 'you can't go home again'."

Yang waved a hand in the air. "No offense, but being a pessimist like that is easy." She winced. "Sorry. Was that too harsh?"

Blake shook her head. "You were right."

"That doesn't answer my question." Yang said, with the tantalizing prospect of a wink somewhere in her voice. She got to her feet and stretched. "Anyway. I'm gonna grab my stuff and head out. No telling when we'll get back, so don't stay up _too_ late."

"I'll be in bed by 8 mom." Blake said dryly.

"Hey, we're on winter break. I'll let you make it 9." Yang turned, unable to keep the wink away any longer.

Blake pressed the book to her face. _Stupid face. Stupid Yang. Stupid wink. Stupid heart. Stop beating so fast._

 

* * *

 

"That's hardly proper winter attire." Weiss said.

"Hey, we're in Vale, not Atlas." Yang said as she dove for cover inside the fort. "Plus, there's my Semblance, remember?"

"I hadn't forgotten!" Weiss said. Behind her back she made a sign for reinforcement against heat, and the castle shone. She had forgotten.

"What's the plan Ruby?" Yang asked her sister.

Ruby poked her head over the ramparts. There was a flicker of rose petals as she dodged the incoming snowballs. "Pyrrha's doing all the throwing. Nora and Ren are gathering ammo, and Jaune's telling her where to aim."

"Do we disrupt the means of production, or take out the artillery?" Yang said.

"I say go for the top." someone said. Everyone looked up.

"You came out!" Yang said, beaming. She promptly blushed as she realized how her words could be misconstrued.

Blake smiled again at that before she finished. "Weiss should aim for Jaune's face. While they're trying to help him, we send Yang in to blow up the fort, leaving everyone else defenseless."

"Pyrrha's good under pressure." Ruby said. "She'll just switch her fire to Yang. And her Semblance is great, but we shouldn't put everything on her."

"Then I'll go with her." Weiss said. "Glyphs for redirection." She looked at Blake. "Or your shadow clones."

Blake shrugged. "It's up to Ruby. She's the leader."

"If they see the castle's undefended, they'll know something is wrong." Ruby said. She was rubbing her temples, hard in thought.

Yang snuck a look at the enemy. "That's a big snowball." she said, just before it hit.

 

* * *

 

"Unbelievable!" Weiss fumed. "All our hard work, and they just send Nora in like a wrecking ball."

"At least wwwe got 'emmm bbbbackk." Ruby stuttered through chattering teeth.

"All excepppt for Ppppyrrrrha." Blake said. Even Yang hadn't managed to take her down. Nora had anointed Pyrrha the queen of the castle for the day, excitedly rambling something about how even queens like herself needed a break every now and then.

Yang fell face-first onto Blake's bed. "Uhhhh." she moaned. "I'm just glad they didn't put rocks in theirs."

"Uh uh." Weiss said. She took hold of Yang's arm and tried to pull her upright. "We need you to heat up the water."

Yang just groaned. "Leave me here to die."

"Yangggg, you're ssssoaked to the bbbbone." Blake said. "Come on. I'll changgge the sheets after we're all donnne."

She did as she promised.

 

* * *

 

Later that night, after they'd all gone to bed, Yang heard Blake whispering her name. "Huhh?" she muttered.

"I'm still cold." Blake said. "Can I..." Her blush felt like it was lighting up the room. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Yang grinned. "I thought you'd never ask." She lifted up her covers and Blake snuggled in beside her.

"Shut up." Blake said, without any malice in her voice whatsoever.


	2. Garden

Yang looks so different. It's not her new clothes or even her arm that Blake can barely see from this angle, but can't stop looking at. She seems so...

Yang says without turning around, "Hi Blake."

Blake jumps. The leaves on the bush she'd been hiding in rustle. "I'm sorry, I-" She shouldn't have been spying. Spying is what Ilia would do. Had done. "I should go."

"No, stay. Please." The pain in Yang's voice makes Blake remember that leaving is all she's ever done for her.

She pushes aside the branches and steps out into the open.

Yang is sitting on a bench. Her eyes are closed, her hands (both her left of flesh and bone and her right of steel and circuits) are flat on her legs. She doesn't open her eyes as Blake draws near. "It's nice and quiet here." Yang says. "But not too quiet. You know?"

Blake shrugs, very aware of how pointless it is with Yang's eyes being closed, but unable to get her throat to respond to her commands. Finally she manages to say, "Yang..."

Yang opens her eyes. Her stupid beautiful purple eyes. Purple, not red, like Blake had been fearing. _Wait, beautiful?_

"I'm sorry. I'm so...sorry. I never should've left."

Yang looks down at the ground without speaking. "You shouldn't." she agrees quietly. Then she looks up. "But you did. And now we're back together."

"That doesn't make up for what I did." Blake says bitterly. She's crying, or she's about to. She hates crying.

"Maybe not." Yang says. "But that's what the future's for." She lifts her left hand from her leg and moves it to the bench, patting it once. "Come here."

Blake doesn't move. She's too afraid to.

"Blake?"

"Why are you so calm?" Blake bursts out. "After what happened to you. After what _I_ made happen to you."

"You're not responsible for what he did." Yang says. A cloud passes over the sun, and Blake shivers. She'd left her coat at the cafe table when she went to go look for Yang. "As for me being calm... Part of me thinks it's meditation. Just...trying to let go of all this stuff inside of me." She stands up. "But another part? Thinks it's because of you."

Blake blinks. "What? But- You should hate me!"

Yang smiles. The cloud is gone. "I could never hate you. I never did. And I never will." She stands up and opens her arms. "Come here." she says again.

Again, Blake doesn't move. At least at first.

Then, despite some part of her saying that she shouldn't, that all of this is too good to be true, Blake hurls herself forward into Yang's embrace. She starts to cry. They both do. Blake is loud and openly anguished. Yang is quiet, letting tears stream down her face as she holds her partner close to her chest.

The birds continue calling back and forth to one another. The butterflies continue to drink deeply of the nectar of the flowers. And in the distance, the buzzing of bees.

After a while Blake looks up and Yang looks down, all in the same instant. Blake smiles hesitantly. Yang smiles back.

The moment is right. The women are right.

Their lips creep closer to one another.

For once, nothing and no one will get in their way.

They kiss in that garden in Kuchinashi, the first time of many.


	3. Recovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Panic attack? It gets fluffy at the end though.

There was a knock at the door, so quiet Yang was unsure if it wasn't just the ordinary sounds of a house made out of wood complaining about the winter temperature.

Unwilling to make any noise that might disturb her sister, Yang didn't say anything.

The knock that came a short while later was very slightly louder. But this time Yang had been ready for it.

"Come in." she whispered from right in front of the door. Even that made her throat hurt. She tried her best to fight back her cough, and was pleased when Taiyang didn't even notice.

"Hey," he said in surprise. "Aren't you're supposed to be resting?"

"I was under the covers with Ruby. She keeps shivering. I don't think they're doing enough to keep her warm."

"You're on an Aura suppressant, remember? You keep thinking you're taking damage when your...when your arm hurts." He couldn't quite bring himself to look at it. Yang didn't blame him. She had a hard time looking at it too, even with all the bandages wrapped around it. "So if you keep using your Aura to keep her warm, you're just delaying your recovery even more."

"What am I supposed to do? Just sit here while Ruby suffers?" Yang almost shouted. Ruby stirred. Both Yang's eyes and their father's eyes shot towards her, but she just turned her head to the side and continued to sleep. "She hasn't woke up, you know? I-" Yang wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "What if she never does?"

"Your sister's a born fighter." Taiyang said. He sat down beside Ruby's bed and felt for her hand. "You both are. What-" He stopped. He looked as if he was about to say something, then changed his mind. "Whatever happened on top of the tower... It was big. I'm not surprised it took a lot out of her." Yang stood at the foot of Ruby's bed, not knowing what to say, or do.

Finally Taiyang looked up. "You go check on your partner, okay? I'll call you if there's a change."

Yang nodded meekly, and left the room.

Once the door closed, Taiyang sighed. "I didn't have the heart to tell her." he said to the unconscious Ruby. "But I don't think cold is the reason you shiver. You're having nightmares, aren't you? The kind you can't wake up from."

He pulled his younger daughter close to his chest.

She didn't respond.

 

* * *

 

Yang rapped her remaining knuckles on the door of the guest room.

Knock knock, wait for half a second, knock knock.

There was no response.

Yang's heart thumped against her ribs. She opened the door hastily, not sure which she was more afraid of: an empty bed, or a bed without a breathing body in it, just a body, the way that man in the mask had treated her-

"Yang?"

Yang blinked.

Blake looked over at her. Her head was flat against the pillow, her matted black hair splayed out around it.

"What are you doing out of bed?" she asked.

Yang couldn't respond. She couldn't breathe. All she could see was red. The red glow of his mask as his sword cut through her arm.

She couldn't even hear Blake shouting her name as she scrambled out of bed and over to Yang's side as Yang slumped against the door.

Yang could feel _his_ presence, as if he was right there in the room with her. She could feel, rather than hear, him saying, "You were no match for me with both your arms. Now? You can't even _try_ to stop me from taking her, like you know I will."

Somewhere in her head, she could feel that she was supposed to be angry at his voice. But all she could feel was blind unreasoning panic.

Suddenly Blake's face swam into view before her. Her lips were moving. The sound of her voice came as if from far away. "Yang!" she thought it was saying. "I'm here! I'm okay! Focus on me!" Yang tried to obey. She looked straight into Blake's eyes. Her beautiful yellow eyes. _Not yellow,_ she thought hazily. _More like gold. Gold like she is, inside and out._

Blake's voice was a little clearer now. "You're safe. You're safe." she kept repeating gently. "I'm here. I'm here."

Yang felt something on either side of her face. She tried to reach up to touch it, but only felt one hand on her cheek. _That doesn't make sense,_ she thought. _It's the same on the other-_ Then she remembered.

 

* * *

 

Yang started shaking again, and Blake was too weak from lying in bed all day long to stop her. "Someone! Please!" Blake shouted desperately.

Footsteps in the hall. Two pair.

"What's going on? What's happening?" one voice asked, almost frantic.

Another voice, calmer and deeper, somewhat gruff. "I got this. Let me." Someone crouched down next to her. "Yang," the person said. Blake felt as if she might know this person, at least a little. "There's nothin' to be afraid of. Breathe, firecracker. Breathe. Breathe..." Yang took huge gulps of air, but she was still shaking. "Breathe..." the person said again. Blake chanced a look to her left. It was Ruby and Yang's uncle. Usually, at least on the few times she'd encountered him, he'd been drunk, but now he seemed refreshingly sober, and laser-focused on Yang.

"Can't be very comfortable down there." their uncle said. He put his arms around her and lifted her into the air. "Whaddya say we go downstairs an' sit on the couch? Let your partner get some rest."

"I want to help!" Blake said, scrambling to her feet. Big mistake. She gasped and clamped a hand over her injured side.

"You can't help her without helpin' yourself first." their uncle said. "Tai, make sure she gets back in bed. And stays there."

"Who made you the boss?" the other man demanded of the uncle's retreating back.

Their uncle stopped. He turned his head, shifting Yang in his arms. He seemed about to say one thing, only to decide against it at the last second. "You got anything else to do?" he said finally.

"Ruby-"

Their uncle sighed. "Look, we'll talk about this later. The kids don't need to know." He shot an apologetic look at Blake as the other man tried to help her into bed. "Nothin' personal kid. You've all been through a lot. 'specially with that piece a' work comin' in the other day an' takin' Ice Princess. Last thing you need's a moldy old crow reusin' arguments an' breakin' the sound barrier."

"That- That's speed. That's- Ruby's...thing." Yang mumbled.

"Eh, you know what I meant." their uncle said.

Blake watched them go until the other man shut the door behind him.

 

* * *

 

She didn't remember falling asleep. She opened her eyes, squinting at the wall for the clock. It was late. She didn't remember what time it had been when Yang opened the door either.

She pulled back the covers, wincing as the wound in her side made itself known. She winced again as she sat up and reached for her shoes before remembering that her usual clothes were folded neatly in the dresser, her heels waiting on the floor in front of it.

So she put on her slippers and made her way to the door, opening it with her right hand to avoid further aggravating her injured stomach.

She made her way slowly down the stairs. She didn't know why or where she thought she was going until she saw a splash of yellow out of the corner of her eye. Yang was hunched over on the couch, silent.

Blake gasped involuntarily. _He couldn't-_

"Yang!" she said aloud. She hurried to the couch. "Are you all right?"

Yang looked up. Her eyes were shot with red. She didn't say anything.

Blake flung her arms around her.

Yang wanted to do the same, but she only had one to return the favor.

"I had-" Yang said, barely audible. She licked her lips and tried again. "I had a-"

Blake could feel Yang's heart beating against hers.

Eventually Yang started to speak again. "It was a...nightmare. I mean it's day out, so it was a bad dream. Whatever. I dreamed you...you left."

Blake was sure that Yang could feel _her_ heart beating against Yang's now. She didn't trust herself to say anything.

"Tai went back upstairs?" someone drawled from behind them. Blake half-turned. It was Yang and Ruby's uncle. "Figures."

"I'm not his-" Blake almost said 'problem', and winced internally. "Daughter." she said.

"Yeah, well, Ruby's not my daughter either. Neither is Yang. But I still try an' care about both of 'em." their uncle said. He took a drink from a mug in his hand. Seeing Blake's expression, his mouth seemed to flatten. "It's water." he said. "I don't drink anythin' else while I'm here."

"Doesn't it hurt?" Yang asked. Blake looked at her. "Withdrawal?"

"It's not your problem. If it does, an' I'm not sayin' it does." Their uncle walked from the door to the kitchen to the foot of the stairs. "Think Tai an' I could use some air." he said. Then he looked at the two girls on the couch. "You know what he's gonna say-"

"Keep an eye on Ruby." Yang said, in unison with her uncle. "I know. I already do that."

"Just makin' sure." their uncle said. He didn't specify what he was making sure about, or for whom. He headed slowly up the stairs, Blake and Yang watching him until he disappeared from sight.

Yang's attention came back to Blake. "That thing you said before..." Blake couldn't look her in the eye. "I almost did."

"What? When? _Why_?"

"I was so afraid. I was..." She looked at the stub of Yang's arm. "It was my fault you got hurt. He would've done _worse_. I couldn't-" Tears were welling in her eyes. She couldn't seem to wipe them away, no matter how hard she rubbed. "I couldn't put you in danger like that. Every moment I spend with you, that's another moment he could find us. Hurt us. Hurt YOU."

"Blake..." Yang said. Blake got up and stood by the window. "It was my fault. I should've- I should've waited until I had all the facts. But you were in danger. You got hurt too. I don't think straight when someone I care about is in danger."

"I should've gotten away. Sooner, I mean..."

"How _did_ we make it out of there?" Yang asked.

Blake shrugged. "I don't know. I carried you to safety. I ran away from him again."

" _You_ carried _me_? With a hole in your side?" Blake didn't answer. "You don't give yourself enough credit Blake." Yang said.

Blake laughed. "Look who's talking." She finally chanced a look back at Yang. Yang was smiling at her. She seemed almost awestruck.

"Hold that thought." Yang said. "Don't move. Please?" She got up. Blake followed her with her gaze as she came closer. "With the light behind you, you look- You look-" Yang gave up trying to explain it. She just stood there, smiling. Blake found herself smiling as well. She pulled a stray lock of hair away from her face, then found herself reaching out hesitantly towards Yang.

"You've got a-" she said.

Yang looked down at where Blake was pointing. "Oh yeah." She made no effort to move it. She let Blake do that. Her hand gently brushed against Yang's face. Yang gasped a little.

The two men came down the stairs. Their father saw Blake and Yang first. He opened his mouth to say something, but the uncle put a hand on his shoulder. When their father looked back at him, the uncle shook his head. Something in his eyes said _Let 'em have this, Tai._

So Tai did. He opened the front door as quietly as he knew how to, letting Qrow do the closing.

Neither Yang nor Blake even noticed them.

Yang was the first one to speak. "So..." she said. "We've got a lot of things to work on. I know that. But before we do any of it, can I just-"

Blake's heart leaped into her throat. "What?" she croaked.

Yang put her hand on Blake's cheek. She drew Blake closer, or she moved closer herself. "Can I-"

Blake licked her lips. "Can you...?"

Yang's eyes flashed unmistakably to Blake's lips.

And Blake knew.

"Oh." she said. "You- You feel like that too?"

Yang nodded. She licked her lips again, nervously this time.

"How long?"

Yang shrugged. "Since the first time I met you, I think."

"It was in the forest for me." Blake admitted.

Yang smiled. "That was fun, wasn't it?"

Blake nodded. Then, unable to wait any longer, she asked, "Are you going to kiss me or what?"

"Well when you put it like that," Yang said with a grin. "I think I'd rather wait until we're feeling better, don't you?"

"Yang-"

"All right, all right." Yang moved in close.

Suddenly Blake pulled away. "I- I don't want to pressure you." she stammered.

"You're not." Yang said.

Blake allowed herself to relax, even though she knew it was a mistake. "Oh." she said again. "Well then."

"Yup." Yang said. She leaned in once more, and time seemed to slow as her lips moved closer to Blake's.

It stopped completely when they met in the middle for their first kiss.


	4. Beeunion (And More)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oops I accidentally a whole team

"You're certain you'll be all right here by yourself?"

Weiss nods. "Yes ma'am."

" _Don't_ call me that." her sister says.

Weiss flinches. "I- I'm sorry. It was instinctive, I-"

Winter closes her eyes. She takes several deep breaths before she responds. "The fault is mine. I should have expected you would...revert into old habits, after being left alone with our father and brother."

"I wasn't alone." Weiss says. She misses Klein. "I should've remembered." she continues. She crosses to the window and gazes out at the square below. "I remembered all of Father's 'partners'. Even the ones he no longer does business with."

"Our burden does not rest squarely on your shoulders." Winter says, her face kinder than her words. Weiss can see it reflected in the window.

Weiss sighs. "I will try and remember." She turns and offers a smile. "If _you_ try and have fun at the party."

"Ah yes. The creme de la creme of Mistralian society, on their best behavior, and hidden behind masks so one never knows who one is speaking to. And not their normal masks either." Winter winks. Weiss giggles, surprised at her sister's daring, even in private. Winter walks to the door. She looks back one last time. "I've left a few of my operatives downstairs. They have orders not to disturb you, but you're welcome to join them in case..." Her expression falters. Her own mask cracks for a moment.

"I understand." Weiss says. And she does, though she doesn't think she'll need to join them. Solitude is easier to bear when it's a choice instead of a requirement. She curtsies. "Thank you Winter."

Winter smiles widely (for her at any rate) and leaves, closing the door behind her almost inaudibly.

 

* * *

 

"Come on Uncle Qrow. It's a fancy dress party! When am I ever gonna get the chance to dress up like her again?!"

Qrow sighs. "Just cause we made it to Mistral doesn't mean we're outta the woods yet." He coughs. Ruby hurries to his side, but he waves her away even as he keeps coughing. Eventually he stops. "They were lookin' for you an' yer friends out in the middle 'a' nowhere. The city's big-" He coughs again. "But not big enough t' stop 'em from findin' you if they want to. An' they do."

"It's not like I have a monopoly on little red hoods!" Ruby says. "I could wear a mask! They're handing them out at the front door! And I could try and disguise my voice!"

Nora pipes up from the bathroom. "You could wear my outfit and I could wear yours!" she says in a flurry of words.

"Uh uh." Ruby says. "I'm not putting my friends in danger instead of me!"

"I can take care of myself!" Nora says, poking her head around the corner.

"Your stocking's on your head." Ren says.

"Well where _else_ would it be? I gotta shave my legs before I put them on, and the countertop in here's already full!"

Ruby smiles and listens to them pretending to argue for a while. "I'll figure out what I'm gonna wear later." she sighs. "I've still got time, right?"

 

* * *

 

"Is that really all you're gonna wear?" Blake asks.

"Yup!" Sun says. "I mean, who's gonna expect a monkey Faunus underneath a monkey costume?"

"I think most people would." Blake says.

"Well, then that's the first normal thing about me."

Blake turns her back to him as he continues putting his costume on, to give him some privacy.

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" her mother asks. "The decision is yours, of course, but we could use an extra hand or two..."

"And an extra set of eyes." her father says. "I'm not getting any younger." He puts a hand on Kali's shoulder. "Though I'm not sure I can say the same about you..."

Kali rolls her own eyes. "Flatterer."

"Charmer." Ghira retorts.

" _Hopeless_ romantic."

"Married to _another_ hopeless romantic. So I'd say it evens out."

They kiss each other, prompting Sun to make loud gagging noises in the corner. Then he gasps.

Blake whirls around. "What is it Sun?"

He's sitting down on the arm of the chair, clasping a hand over his left shoulder. "Shoulder hurts." he says self-evidently through gritted teeth. "Thought it was getting better."

Blake hurries to his side. She helps him take his arm out of his costume, doing her best to ignore his grunts of pain as she does so. "Looks as though you've been pushing yourself too hard. Take it from an expert."

He tries to smile. "Guess I'll be missing out on that costume party. Wouldn't want to bring the mood down by bleeding out on the ballroom floor." He jerks his thumb at the nearby table. "You should take my- Take my ticket. At least one of us should have some fun tonight."

"What about my ears?" she asks.

"You're still worrying about those?"

"Yes! And you were worried about your tail too. Why else would you buy the last costume in the store? And the most obvious one at that."

Sun doesn't respond. He's still conscious, if his shifting gaze is any indication.

Kali speaks from behind Blake. "I can do your hair up to cover them, if you like."

Blake purses her lips. Then she sighs. "Best we can do on short notice..."

 

* * *

 

Yang prefers driving during the day. She prefers the daytime in general. The light from her namesake helps keep her thoughts upbeat and airy.

She thinks she'd be able to deal with her current rejection better if it had happened during the day.

"What do you mean, closed?" she asks.

The guard in the booth shrugs. "Curfew." he says. He turns a page in his magazine.

Yang's mechanical arm whirs faintly as the servos clench the fingers of her hand into a fist. "I have been driving," she says, trying to keep calm. "For a _very_ long time. I just want to get inside, get a place to sleep, and find my sister. It's been almost a year since I saw her." She wonders if she was starting to whine a little there at the end. _You're better than that Xiao Long._

"You wanna make camp or somethin' in the woods, go ahead. We might even come get you if you get into trouble. But ain't no one gettin' in or out of these gates until the mornin'."

She bristles. "I can handle myself!"

The guard's radio buzzes. "The same way you handled that guy during the tournament, correct?"

Yang's heart stops. Her mouth opens and closes, but no sound comes out.

"A.T. sends his regards." the voice over the radio says.

The guard frowns. "Yosh," he says. "The hell are you on about?"

The radio is silent.

The guard turns another page in his magazine, reaching over for the radio with his other hand. He knocks it to the floor, and curses. He leans over his chair, fumbling around for it. Yang watches him numbly.

There's a click.

"What-"

The booth explodes.

Yang goes flying backward into a tree.

 

* * *

 

The house that Winter is renting (or borrowing, or just plain taking, Weiss isn't privy to the details) sits on the hill just above the front gates of the city. During the daytime when the gates are open, she can open a window and listen to the sounds of people coming and going. The first time she'd done it, Winter had almost snapped at her to keep away from the window. Weiss had hastened to obey, and when her older sister had seen the tears Weiss had been struggling to hold back, she had actually hugged her.

"We do not know whether Father has learned of your coming here." she had whispered. "We cannot afford to have one of his agents spot you."

"I'm done living in fear!" Weiss had said. " _Let_ them spot me! Let HIM come to try and drag me back himself!"

"It's one thing to say that when he's far away. It's another thing entirely to say it to his face." Winter had said. She hugged Weiss harder before pulling back, with her hands on Weiss's shoulders, to look her in the eyes. "We have quite enough to concern ourselves with as it is, wouldn't you agree?"

Weiss is jolted from her thoughts by a dull _whomp_ from down below. She turns out the lights and rushes over to the far window, pulling back the shades and peering out.

There's something wrong with the gatehouse. Before she really has a chance to look at it, she thinks she hears gunshots. Familiar gunshots.

She looks at the path leading up to the gates. There are sporadic flashes of light. As she tries to find the source, she sees a glimpse of long yellow hair, and her heart skips a beat.

The name falls from her lips before she can help it, if she even wanted to.

"Yang!"

 

* * *

 

Yang groggily raises her head. It feels as though it's full of cotton. "What was- What wazzat?" she mutters to herself.

Something answers her. **"Look over here."**

She ignores it, choosing to focus on her right arm instead. She lifts it off the ground and flexes the fingers several times to make sure it still works.

**"Look over here."** the voice intones again.

She can feel something heavy sitting on her shoulder. She thinks that's where the voice is coming from.

"I try to make a point not to judge a book by its cover," she says, stalling for time. "But I haven't even seen your cover yet, and already I don't think I like you."

**"Hey, I told you to look over here."**

Finally, she does.

It's a squat round thing with what looks like a skull for a face, and a long pointed nose. It has treads too. Her hair is tangled up in them.

"Don't...touch...my...hair." she growls. Said hair is burning.

The thing launches itself at her face. It begins to glow.

She grabs it and throws it as hard as she can. The explosion still sends her flying away from the tree she'd come to rest against.

She scrambles to her feet, Ember Celica unfolding into its combat form. In the darkness before her, she thinks she can see the thing righting itself.

She shoots it head-on.

It emerges from the smoke, unscathed.

"Oh boy." she says.

It hurtles toward her on its treads.

 

* * *

 

"See? Nothing to worry about." Ruby says to Ren.

"So far." Ren replies.

Ruby sighs. "Worrywarts. Just...call up to the room and have Mister J let The Old Man know we're a-okay. Okay?"

"You and No-" Ruby glances quickly at him. "-I mean, you and Agent Thunderstruck are having entirely too much fun with these codenames."

"Hey, if we're gonna be overcautious, we might as well do it in style!"

Ren's lips curve upward ever so slightly before he turns away and pulls out his Scroll.

Ruby scans the room. _Don't have to wear heels this time, that's a plus. Wish the other partiers would liven up. They're all so_ solemn _. The dance at Beacon was way more fun._

She frowns. The back of a tall woman with long white hair catches her eye.

She nudges Ren. "Hey doesn't that look like Weiss's sister?"

Ren looks up. He follows her gaze to the center of the room, where the white-haired woman is laughing with someone else. "I never met her. I wouldn't know."

"Oh yeah..." Ruby finds herself deflating. Before her bad mood has a chance to settle in for good, she declares, "I'm gonna go over there and ask her. You stay here by the refreshment bar and watch out for me."

He nods once, his head already back down. "Do you have your Scroll?" he asks.

"It's in here. Thank goodness for pockets!" She tilts her head to the side. "Are you and Agent Thunderstruck flirting again?"

He hides his Scroll behind his back. "No!" he says.

"Riiiight." She nudges him with her shoulder, hoping he can see her smile, and sets off toward the white-haired woman.

On her way across the room she almost collides with someone in a long black dress and a rabbit mask. Her matching hair is done up in an imposing (and somewhat unsteady-looking) fashion, and she hurries away, almost before Ruby remembers to alter her voice and say, "Sorry!" The woman seems to hunch over as if in pain. Ruby frowns after her for a moment, then remembers her original goal.

"Excuse me." she says a short while later. The white-haired woman turns. "I saw you from over there by the punch. I know I'm probably technically old enough to drink, or at least no one here is gonna care if I do, but I don't want to, you know? I'm...sorry, I'm-" Ruby stops before her voice reverts to normal, and continues. "The way you hold yourself makes me think you're military, and your hair- You wouldn't happen to be, uh, Winter Schnee, would you?"

The woman's mask hides whatever expression she might be wearing underneath it. _If she_ is _Winter, and if she's anything like Weiss, she's got a mask underneath that other one..._

The woman finally speaks. "Do I know you?"

Ruby winces. "No. Probably not. I'll be leaving now."

She turns, but the woman says, "Wait." Ruby's shoulders stiffen, like the woman she'd almost ran into. Reluctantly, she turns back around. "I do know you..." the white-haired woman says.

_Please don't say my name please don't say my name-_

"If you are...who I think you are..." the woman says slowly.

Suddenly someone's at her side. "Specialist Schnee," the newcomer says, and Ruby pumps her fist at being right. "She's gone."

"What?" Winter snaps.

"She took her weapon and left, faster than the guards could catch her. She was heading down to the main gate."

Winter throws off her mask. "With me." The newcomer nods, and seems to speak into his shoulder. Winter looks down at Ruby. "If you are who I think you are, I'll be right to bring you along. If not..." Ruby gulps at the utter chill in Winter's voice. "We'll deal with that when the time comes." the older woman finishes. She grabs Ruby by the hand and storms across the room to the nearest exit.

The woman in black follows them.

 

* * *

 

Yang is gasping for breath. Her attempts at dodging the little demon, both successful and not, have depleted her Aura. It doesn't seem to matter how many shots she fires at the thing, or how close she manages to get before loosing them, it seems completely unscathed. It just keeps rolling along menacingly, occasionally bellowing what seems to be its catchphrase **"Look over here!"** before it explodes.

"I mean..." Yang says, to no one in particular. "It's not really- Exploding, it's just- Letting off these- These shock- Shockwaves..."

Not even its own explosions seem to cause it any harm, but they do seem to immobilize it for a short period of time, like it is now.

Yang pokes her head out of hiding, pointing her left fist at the little demon and pulling the trigger. Nothing happens, except a _click_. She grunts angrily and lowers her hand.

Suddenly, on an impulse, she raises it again and opens it up. A blast of fire comes out, quickly forming into a ring around the thing. It rolls forward, then stops. It backs up and turns, and tries rolling forward again. It stops again.

"Heat-sensing, huh?" Yang calls to it. "Figured as much. I noticed it seemed to react more when I _didn't_ hit than when I did."

The little demon doesn't say anything.

Yang's right hand clenches into a fist. She feels it, distantly; phantom pain, they called it.

"'A.T.' sent this after me, huh? Well. I'm guessing Adam Taurus is a little afraid of me now. And he SHOULD be." She looks out, right at the little demon's vacant eye-holes. It sits motionless a few dozen feet away. "If he's watching this, just know whatever happens to your little toy here...is gonna happen to you a lot more."

Fire is flowing freely from her scalp now. It usually does when she's as angry as this.

Suddenly the little demon starts to move, faster than she's ever seen it move before. It blasts itself into the air and directly at her.

**"Look over here!"** it bellows. It's bearing down fast.

"Look over _here_!" an achingly familiar voice shouts.

A shining symbol appears between the demon and Yang. More symbols appear all around it: back and left and right and below.

Yang knows those symbols. She sees white out of the corner of her eye.

Before she can turn, the demon glows painfully brilliantly bright.

"Weiss!" Yang shouts. "Break the Glyphs!" She pulls one last shell out of her pocket, loads it, cocks Ember Celica and fires at the ground to blow herself back.

Weiss does as Yang says, without outwardly questioning it.

Even from a distance, the machine's final explosion knocks the wind from her lungs.

 

* * *

 

Winter has a Bullhead waiting for them by the time they get out of the reception hall. She ushers Ruby on board, her back turned to the wing of the plane that the woman in black leaps aboard.

"How long have you been in Mistral?" Ruby shouts over the whine of the engines as they lift off.

"Classified." Winter says. She flashes a smile over her shoulder, so quick Ruby's not sure she didn't just imagine it, and leans in to speak to the pilot. "Do we have eyes on her?"

"Civilians reported seeing someone in white practically flying over the outer wall."

"Do we have eyes on her _now_?"

"Negative."

Winter pounds her fist against the pilot's chair. The pilot, evidently an experienced one, doesn't flinch. "I'm sorry." she says. Whether it's to him or Ruby, no one is sure. "I lost her for almost a year. She seemed happy to see me. Delighted, even. What could have possessed her..."

Ruby approaches her, _almost_ timidly. "Whatever Weiss does, she does for a reason. Not ALWAYS a good reason, but usually-"

Winter doesn't respond. Her eyes are scanning the treeline. "There!" she shouts. "Take us low as you can."

The pilot complies.

They must be at least twenty feet off the ground when Winter jumps. Ruby waits a second or two before she follows suit. She wants to have enough Aura for a fight. Just in case.

 

* * *

 

Weiss stabs Myrtenaster into the ground and uses it to pull herself up.

She limps in the direction she remembers Yang flying. There's no sign of the thing she'd been fighting. As the last of her Glyphs had evaporated, Weiss thought she'd glimpsed the power its explosion would have. "It was on defense." she finds herself saying. "All that time, it- It was practically toying with us."

"I sure feel like a toy." another voice says. "A well-used toy that's been...kicked down a flight of stairs-" The owner of the voice groans. "-And thrown out a window-"

"Yang!" Weiss cries. She hurries to Yang's side.

"-A thirty-six-story one." Yang continues. "With no Aura."

"Thirty-sixth- _floor_." Weiss corrects her instinctively.

"Yeah. That." Yang sits up. "What were you saying about defense?"

"It... The machine thought it was being captured. It set all of its power to self-destruct." Weiss frowns. "I could have contained the blast though."

"But you didn't have to. We're okay now, aren't we?"

"I suppose." Weiss says. She was still trying to bring herself down from the adrenaline of her escape from the house, her flight down the levels of Mistral that separated her from the gate, her Glyph-propelled leap over the wall, and her mad dash to where all the noise had been coming from. She contents herself with saying, "It is good to see you."

"That's it? I don't get a hug?"

"Of course not! People might be watching!"

Yang frowns. "Wow. Your old man really did a number on you."

Weiss flushes. " _What?!_ "

"Just saying. I...remember how badly you reacted when he came to get you."

Weiss doesn't know what she should say to that.

Yang's gaze drifts down to the ground over to her right. Weiss looks the other way.

"I'm sorry." Weiss says. Yang looks up. "I'm sorry for...for leaving."

"You didn't have a choice."

"Yes I did! I could have stood up to him; _then_ , instead of months later at some stupid party! But I didn't! I was too-" She forces herself to quiet down. "I was too afraid."

"Trust me, I know all about being afraid." Yang says. She reaches out and very gently puts a hand on Weiss's arm.

Someone calls her name. Weiss and Yang both turn to look.

 

* * *

 

Ruby lands and runs after Winter the old-fashioned way, without using her Semblance. Even with the Bullhead overhead (if she had been thinking the words ahead as they came to mind, she would have she smiled to herself at the semi-pun) she can hear someone following her.

Before she has a chance to get ready, they're drawing level with her. She unfolds Crescent Rose, but suddenly finds herself screeching to a halt.

She knows this person.

"Blake?" she says.

But Blake keeps running.

"Blake!" Ruby shouts.

Silence. Then, footsteps.

Blake steps out from beneath a tree into the moonlight. "Hello Ruby." she says. Her ears lie flat upon her head, the wind having broken whatever magic spell her mother had managed to cast upon her hair.

Ruby disappears in a burst of rose petals.

Blake flinches, expecting to be struck. And she is, in a way.

Ruby slams into her, flinging her arms tight around the older girl. "It's so good to see yoooou!" she squeals.

Blake somehow manages to find the mental capacity to put her arms around Ruby in return.

Ruby looks up. "Where have you _been_??" she asks. That's all.

"I...uh... I went to visit my parents. In Menagerie."

"You have parents?! What are they like?"

"'What are they like?'" Blake repeats. "Is that really what you want to know?"

"Yes! No! Yes! I-" Ruby hugs Blake again. "I missed you! And Yang missed you too! And Weiss! Not that she ever admitted it but-"

"You...missed me?" Blake repeats again. Her voice is normal, despite her stomach falling through her shoes at the mere mention of Yang. "You weren't- You're not...mad?"

"I don't know!" Ruby says. "It's all so sudden! I haven't had much time to think about stuff since I left!"

"Left?" Blake pulls away to look at Ruby. "Ruby..." She gulps. "Where's Yang?"

 

* * *

 

"Weiss." Winter says. She's holding two swords, one of which is hers. "You left something behind."

Weiss walks over to her sister, every nerve and fiber of her being radiating tension. "I'm sorry." she murmurs. "I needed it to get to my feet, and...and then I remembered Yang."

"I was referring to me." Winter says. Weiss flinches. "If you had let my men call me, if you had _waited_..."

"I'd probably be dead." Yang says. Winter looks at her. Bruised and battered, Yang comes to stand by Weiss. Somehow she still looks ready to fight.

"I saw her from the window." Weiss whispers. "It doesn't excuse my actions." She pulls herself up. "But I can't promise I won't do it again. Or that I wouldn't make the same decision again if I had to."

Winter studies her for a long moment. Then she offers Myrtenaster back to Weiss, pommel-first. "We'll discuss this another time." she says. "You need to catch up with your partner."

Weiss and Yang speak over one another.

"She's not-"

"We're not-"

They stop, and giggle. Winter almost smiles.

Yang is the first to speak.

"Have either of you...I don't know...heard anything about Blake?"

Winter considers her choice of words carefully. "Heard, no."

Weiss has her own train of thought. "Where's Ruby? Didn't she come with you?"

Yang looks about to respond, but suddenly her gaze flashes to something over Weiss's left shoulder. "There she is." she whispers.

 

* * *

 

Ruby stops. She doesn't even notice Blake falling back into the shadows. Her eyes dart from Weiss to Yang, then back to Weiss, then back to Yang.

Weiss silently steps to one side.

Just in time, as Ruby bowls through the space where she'd been standing and into Yang's waiting arms.

Yang grunts exaggeratedly. Though she does ache all over from the damage the little demon thing had inflicted with its explosions, praising Ruby is more important. "You're so **strong**!" Yang says, squeezing her sister's biceps with both her hands. "Feel all that muscle!"

Ruby laughs through her tears. Suddenly she lets go. "Wait..." she says. She looks down at Yang's right arm. Yang holds it up for Ruby to inspect. "Whoaaaa!" Ruby breathes. "That is so COOL! Where'd you get it?!"

"Ironwood sent it." Yang says.

Weiss frowns. "Ironwood...?"

Ruby reaches out. "Can I see?"

It's Yang's turn to laugh. "Later sis. Right now it's cuddle time."

"Aww." Ruby pretends to pout. But she latches on to Yang again, and the sisters cry together.

 

* * *

 

Weiss becomes aware they're being watched. She turns around to catch a glimpse of golden eyes in the darkness before their owner looks away.

"Blake!" Weiss shouts.

Yang looks up from Ruby's shoulder. Her eyes meet Blake's for a moment. They're purple, but Blake takes no satisfaction from that.

Weiss is marching over to Blake. "Why- Where-" she tries to say.

Blake opens her mouth. "I-"

"I'm not done!" Weiss snaps. For a moment, Blake feels like arguing, but then she remembers this is what she deserves for leaving. This and worse. So she waits. "I had to pick up the pieces after you left! Ruby was unconscious! Sometimes it seemed like Yang was as well!" Blake flinches. "But then he- My father, he- He forced me to go back to Atlas with him..." Weiss stops. Her eyes grow distant. Then she snaps back to the present. "But no one forced _you_! You just did it! You ran! Again!"

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Blake says angrily.

"Of course I don't! Because you didn't tell me! You didn't tell any of us!"

"Weiss." Yang says. "That's enough."

Weiss and Blake turn. They both see the look in Yang's eyes. Both interpret it in different ways.

"I'm sorry." Weiss says, to Yang and Blake both. "I just wanted to make sure Blake understands what she did."

"I do." Blake says quietly.

The quiet continues unabated for a few moments.

Ruby clears her throat. "Okay. Group hug. That's an order." She opens her arms.

Yang moves in automatically.

Weiss pauses. She reaches out to Blake and stops, allowing the Faunus to hesitantly put her hand in hers. With that, Weiss joins Ruby's hug, gently pulling Blake in after her.

"We're a team." Ruby says, uncaring of the tears that everyone can hear more than see. "No more splitting up, okay?"

"What about-" Weiss begins.

"Shh." Yang says. "Later Weiss."

 

* * *

 

Everyone had wanted the sleepover to be at their own place. (Except Yang. She didn't have a place just yet, so she went with the flow.)

Ghira and Kali were eager to meet Blake's team, whom Kali had heard such tantalizing things about while eavesdropping at the door, a fact Sun readily brought up, only to be bopped over the head by a pillow.

Qrow wanted it at the hotel room where he and RNJR had been staying. He'd scoped it out himself, as much as he'd been able to, and he could attest to its security. Nora, Jaune and Ren wanted to catch up.

Winter coolly reminded Qrow that not only had he been recently injured, but he was a perpetual drunkard and his snores were liable to keep everyone up long after they should have been asleep. She could vouch for all of her subordinates, _and_ the security of the house they'd been renting. ("At least that's one mystery out of the way," Weiss had been heard to remark to Ruby.)

In the end, it fell to Ruby. She decided that it should be at Winter's house, with Ghira, Kali, Nora, Qrow and Ren told (but reminded to keep secret) its location. When Jaune and Sun protested at being left out, Ruby said they could come, but they'd have to be blindfolded first. (Blake had yet to have a chance to thank Ruby for seeming to read her mind. She hadn't forgotten Jaune nearly giving her secret away in the library.)

Now Team RWBY is getting ready for bed. Ruby's brushing Weiss's hair in front of the mirror, while Weiss sits with her eyes closed, feeling calmer than she can remember feeling in a long long time.

Blake had wanted to sit out on the rooftop, at least until Winter had reminded her that _she_ had people looking for her as well. When Blake had asked how Winter knew about the White Fang, Winter had simply told her it was classified.

So Blake sits out in the hallway, listening to everything that happens in the house. Whether she likes it or not, thanks to her Faunus heritage.

Yang comes out of the bathroom. Her eyes lock onto Blake's for a moment. "...hey." she says. Then she moves on down the hall.

Blake takes a deep breath. "Wait." Yang stops. "I-" Blake says before abruptly changing her mind. "Why did you stand up for me against Weiss?"

A long time ago Yang would have frowned and cocked her head to one side. Now, she just stares at the wall next to Blake before she says, "Someone had to." She adds, after some thought, "It wasn't so much 'against Weiss' or 'for you'. It was...kind of in the middle. You know?"

Blake nods, even though she doesn't know. "So, about...us..."

Yang sighs. "There is no 'us' Blake. Not any more."

She's been expecting words to this effect for months now, but they still cut her to the quick. Blake looks away. "...I'm sorry."

Yang is silent. "So am I." she finally says. She takes another step, and suddenly turns back. "You know what hurts the most? I thought I'd gotten over you. I thought-" She inhales deeply. "-I was finally getting better, and then you all come flooding back into my life like it's no big deal that you LEFT me for over a YEAR..." Her eyes are filling with tears. Blake wants to stand up and hug her, to tell her to let it all go, but she doesn't have that right any more, if she ever did. "And...while you were gone...I...I thought I figured something out..." She hiccups, and buries her face in her hand, having left her prosthetic arm in the bedroom while she was taking a shower.

"I'm sorry." Blake says. She's crying too now. "He said- He said he would- Would _hurt_ you, and- And I couldn't- I couldn't let him-"

They're alone together in that tiny little hallway, less than six feet apart, crying, unable to stop, wishing they could, wishing they could hold each other in their arms and help them through this.

Suddenly Yang wipes her eyes on her sleeve. "This is- This is stupid." she sniffs. "Come here."

"W- What?" Blake says.

Yang spreads her arms apart, both left and right. "Come here." she says again.

As if in a dream, Blake stands up and lets Yang wrap her whole arm and her stub around her. "Every night," she hears Yang whisper. "For months, I woke up, covered with sweat, remembering how you _screamed_ when he stabbed you. And I didn't know. I didn't know if you were alive, or dead, or with _him_ again. And it felt like he'd cut out a piece of my heart instead of my arm."

"What are you saying?" Blake asks, her body stiff as a board.

"I'm saying..." Yang pauses before she leans in and lets it hurt. "I don't want you to run away again. Because I love you."

Blake feels her jaw hitting the floor, in a strictly metaphorical sense, of course; her actual jaw merely hits Yang's right shoulder. She stammers incoherently. Even she knows she's not trying to say real words right now.

"I know you...you probably don't feel the same way. I honestly don't know why I said it." Yang is saying. "But I am _so_ **tired** of keeping things locked up inside me. And if this- This tears the team apart...then fine. I mean, **not** fine. But...at least I tried."

"Yang, I-"

Blake's never had a way with words. She likes reading them well enough, but it's too hard sometimes to say the things she means. She remembers that actions speak louder than words, so she lets her actions do the talking.

She pulls back and kisses Yang Xiao Long full on the mouth. Yang squeaks. Her arms come up involuntarily before she relaxes, putting her hand on Blake's cheek to bring her in closer.

Together, they can all begin to heal.


	5. Sun and Moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only one I've written for the 2018 BMBLB week, involving a headcanon from a friend.

Spring in Atlas was not Blake's idea of fun.

Weiss had told all of them they'd been lucky they spent most of winter cleaning up Haven and recovering after the battle, but Blake didn't feel lucky. She just felt cold.

Things with Yang didn't help. It wasn't as bad as she had been afraid of for so long, but... Nope. Even alone in the room she and her teammates were sharing (again), she couldn't put her finger on it. It just felt  _off_ . Glances were exchanged, though rarely shared. Yang kept her hands in her pockets most days, which was a mixed blessing. While Blake was still getting used to Yang's new arm, more than once, Blake had seen Yang's other arm start to shake, and  _fervently_ wished she could take her old partner by the hand and help her somehow.

But it was not to be. She just watched and ached inside.

"She missed you a lot." Ruby said. "She's always had this...I don't want to say 'darker side', but I don't know what else to call it. She's always had this darker side where she just kind of shuts down, and nothing seems to bring her out of it. Fixing guns, fixing her bike, reading books. Nothing. It's gotten worse though. Ever since I saw her and Weiss again."

Blake didn't know what to say to that. "When you say 'always'...?"

Ruby shrugged. "As long as I can remember. Dad might be able to tell you more, but he's at Signal and we're up here."

No one could really blame Blake if she watched Yang more closely after that. (Adam might have, but she was learning not to care what Adam would think.) She learned to spot some of the warning signs: silent spells, inability to make decisions (or at least vocalize them). She'd prompt Ruby when she saw them, and Ruby tried, everyone could see it. She tried to engage her older sister in more hand-to-hand lessons or firearm maintenance ('literally a firearm', Yang said once about her prosthetic, and Ruby had laughed a little too long, and Yang had seen it and her other hand had started shaking) or just talking about things. She talked about Weiss's father and how much of a so-and-so he was, even though they hadn't met him once. She got so upset she used a word that should have had Yang at least chastise her a little, but she didn't. Yang talked back, sure, but when she did, she sounded more like Blake than herself.

And then Yang would be beaming and laughing and making her awful puns, and it would feel so much like old times that catching sight of her right arm would only throw Blake a little bit off-balance. But that also felt off, though Blake would only notice it afterward. When someone in the team was feeling sad (the word team was different now too; it meant JNR and Winter when she was there and Ilia and Qrow and even Oscar, but not Ozpin somehow) Yang would burn all the brighter to bring them out of it. She would go out of her way for them. Even for Blake. But it felt off too, like it was a hollow light, a smile outside but not a smile inside, and the cold was never gone for long.

It was early March by the time she managed to say something. They were staking out a warehouse near Mantle (nothing dramatic, just shipments that really shouldn't be here of all places) and Yang had been so good, so vibrant, that Blake could feel the change coming.  _Chalk it up to being a Faunus. We learn early on to read body language. At least most of us do._ Sun had been reunited with his team just like Blake had been reunited with hers, and they had stayed at Haven, the trip by boat (or even Airship) involving too much water for Neptune. "We would've had to drug him with something." Sun had said. "Or maybe have Nora hit him over the head every twelve hours."

"Yang?" Blake said now. Her voice was barely a whisper. Though they were several hundred feet away from the outer limits of the warehouse, sound traveled very well in the still air of Atlas.

"Mmmm?" Yang said, still watching through their binoculars.

"I'm worried. About you."

That got Yang's attention. She looked away from the warehouse and right at Blake. Her eyes were like the cattleyas in the Haven botanical gardens.  _Orchids in this kind of weather? We must have been out here longer than I thought if I'm drifting like this._

"-bout me?" Yang was saying. "Why?"

"I feel like- Like you're heading for a fall."

Yang frowned. "Is this about my fighting again? I went over it last summer with dad. I'm a whole lot better now."

"You weren't even bad before. Not like that." Blake found herself saying.

"Then what?" Yang said, and there was a chill in the air that had nothing to do with the snow they were lying in.

"I- Never mind. I shouldn't have said anything."

"No. If you have something to say, you should say it."

Blake took a deep breath. "You know how you said you went over your fighting style with your dad last summer?" Yang didn't even have to nod. "Summer is a cyclical thing. Like fall." Blake closed her eyes briefly, tried to find that empty space Ren had been teaching them about. "But fall isn't just a season. It's not something you do. Sometimes it's something that just happens."

Yang looked puzzled. "I'm- I'm not following you at all. I'm sorry."

"No. I know I'm not making much sense. I'm s-" She almost said it. If she said it now she might never stop. "Let's wait until we get back."

Yang picked up their binoculars like it was the last thing in the world she wanted to do. Blake didn't need her Faunus hearing to hear the way the snow moved under Yang's left arm.

She laid her fingers on the frigid metal of Yang's right, hoping she would or wouldn't notice.

It was all she could do for now.

 

* * *

 

By the time they got back, the sun had set. It set early this far north, but somehow Blake still hadn't been expecting it. She'd been more focused on the sun by her side instead of the one in the sky.

Dust shortages in Solitas' former capital meant that the street they were walking along on the way back to their makeshift headquarters suffered periodic blackouts. Only Blake's night vision kept them both on their feet, the Faunus unobtrusively guiding her partner around chunks of rubble or other debris.

Yang was being loud. Yang was rarely loud outside of combat, where it was a necessity more often than not. Yet here she was, shouting instead of speaking normally. When Blake attempted to bring it up, Yang had simply said, "I'm only doing it to keep our spirits up. Is it bothering you?"

If it had been anyone else, Blake would have said yes. But she simply shrugged, hoping Yang could see it.

Even once they'd arrived at home, Yang was noisy, laughing in the kitchen, rattling the dishes, mock-fencing with Ruby with some of the silverware. It got to the point where Ilia actually yelled at her to keep it down. Ilia had been scrupulously polite the whole time she'd been with Blake and her team, trying to make a good impression.

Yang dropped her dull kitchen knife. The noise when it hit the ground made Blake wince again.

"I'm sorry," she said in a tone few of them had ever heard before. "I-" Her mouth moved without speaking. Suddenly, incongruously, her eyes flared red for a moment. Ilia stepped back. She was turning green and blue, not red and yellow from anger.

"I'm sorry." Yang said again. She hurried out of the kitchen before anyone could stop her. They heard the door to the garage open and shut.

The scream of anger that followed was loud enough to be heard even through the concrete walls.

"What was  _that_ ?" Nora asked, hoping someone else could put it into words.

No one did.

"Blake?" Ren said. Blake looked up. She'd been staring at the knife. "Do you think you should go check on her?"

"Why me?" Blake said.

The silence that followed was of a different kind. It struck Blake suddenly that there was something else in the room, something that would answer not Nora's question but Blake's.

Something that she'd refused to allow herself to contemplate. Yang deserved better than that.

"Fine." Blake said.

Weiss came with her, at least as far as the door to the garage.

"I know it's not my place-" she began.

"Weiss, you're part of our team. Just as much as she is or I am. Of course it's your place." Blake interjected.

Weiss blinked. She looked so absolutely stunned that Blake felt the need to explain herself.

"Earlier today, when we were out scouting, Yang said 'if you have something to say, you should say it.' You didn't want to come back here to Atlas, but here you are. And... I know I may have been...a little  _too_ focused on Yang lately. You have to remember, the last time I saw her, she was-" She couldn't go on.

"That's right." Weiss said. "I still don't know what happened. Or, not all of it." She'd completely avoided what Blake had said just before that, but Blake didn't mind. She knew Weiss wasn't good at taking heartfelt compliments particularly well. "But I know enough." Weiss said. "I saw the way you were clinging to her that night. And I heard what Yang had to say about you before you got here." She frowned. "I guess what I'm trying to say is: just kiss already."

It was Blake's turn to look absolutely stunned. "I- You- She- What-"

"You heard what I said." She opened the door and firmly pushed Blake inside. "Now do it!"

Yang was sitting by the workbench. Judging by the screwdriver in her left hand, she'd been trying to work on her arm. As Blake watched, Yang lifted the screwdriver and slammed it into the workbench, breaking off a large chunk of a corner.

Trying not to think about something else Yang could have done with it, Blake stepped forward. "Yang." she said. For a moment she wasn't sure if Yang had heard her.

Then she heard it, so quiet even she had had a hard time picking up on it. Yang was crying.

"I hate this-" She sniffed. "This stupid brain of mine." She sniffed again. "I- I thought I w- was doing g- good a-and th- And then..."

Blake stood there. Her mind was racing, but her muscles refused to do the same.

"Y- You s-said I- I was h-heading for a f-fall. I g- I guess I f-found- I guess I f-found it." Yang buried her face in her hand. Her shoulders shook. Her hand did too.

At last Blake could move. She walked quietly up behind Yang and entwined her fingers with Yang's.

"It's not forever." Blake murmured. "I've been keeping track. It comes and goes."

Yang didn't respond, not with words, but Blake felt Yang's fingers squeeze her own.

"I can help you keep track. We all can."

" _No_ ." Yang said, catching Blake off-guard with the sudden vehemence in her voice. "Ju- J- Just you. Just you." Yang looked up. "I don- I don't want- I don't want to wor-worry anyone- Anyone else."

"It's a little late for that." Blake said gently. Yang's hand shook again. To both of their surprise, Blake pulled Yang in for a hug. "We can keep it to ourselves for now." Blake said, rubbing Yang's back in a slow soothing circle. "If anyone asks, what should we say?"

Yang said something. Even in the near-total silence of the garage, Blake's Faunus senses could hardly pick up on it.

"I love you."


End file.
